Iris Treakle
"These are capable and self-sufficient people. Once you show them what can be done, they take it and run with it." Iris Treakle (shown here) is now training islanders to process the paperwork required for insurance applications.
There’s no on-ramp at Reedville to an eighteen-mile bridge linking Northumberland County with Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. There’s no bridge, either—at least not one you can drive across. But the people of Tangier have a connection to their neighbors on the Northern Neck that works almost as well: Iris Treakle and the dozens of volunteers she has mobilized to help the islanders help themselves.
Treakle’s involvement has its roots in her long-term friendship with Dr. David Nichols. “I first met Dr. Nichols when I was nineteen and working at Rappahannock General Hospital. He was working in the emergency room while establishing a practice in White Stone,” Treakle says. The entrepreneurial Treakle eventually left the health care field, becoming an insurance agent and running a cleaning service on the side. Nichols hired her to clean his office, a job she did for years.
Nichols had a special relationship with the people of Tangier Island. For thirty-one years he traveled to the island weekly (at his own expense) to provide medical care for its residents. In 2005 he and a group of supporters began raising funds to replace the island’s old health clinic. A new building was dedicated in August 2010.
“I went over for the dedication and was nearly in tears seeing how much everyone appreciated what Dr. Nichols had done for them. I found myself wishing I’d become a nurse so I could carry on his legacy,” Treakle says. Nichols, suffering from cancer, died several months later. But before he did, he called on Treakle to use the skills she already possessed to assist the islanders. “He asked me to help them get health insurance,” Treakle says. While those over 65 were eligible for Medicare, many others, especially children, had no coverage. So Treakle began her own weekly trips to the island, setting up shop in the clinic, where she slept in the evenings. Like Nichols and the other volunteers, Treakle pays her own way. “It’s part of the Tangier experience,” she insists.
Working with the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF), she became an unpaid administrator for Medicaid and Virginia’s Family Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS) program, which covers children’s care. She became an advocate for Tangier so she could help islanders benefit from govern-funded insurance programs. Soon she found herself doing more than health insurance.
“The islanders have a tradition of helping each other, but they don’t always understand the bureaucracy involved in dealing with government,” she says. To complicate matters, the island is part of Accomack County, Virginia, but residents routinely travel to Crisfield, Maryland, for many services. Treakle has become a financial ombudsman for the islanders. She’s renegotiated old bills and dealt with creditors on their behalf. She’s convinced major pharmaceutical companies to donate special baby formula to a family whose newborn required it. She’s gotten disability payments for one islander and back payments from the federal government for another. She speaks to civic groups in the Northern Neck about ways they can support the people of Tangier, who are, she says, most grateful for donations of supplies and services.
“I can’t, and don’t, do all this alone,” Treakle insists. “I enlist help wherever I can. My goal is to get people on the Northern Neck to think of the people on Tangier as their neighbors. They may not be part of our counties, but they are important to us. The island brings tourists to Lancaster and Northumberland Counties. It’s a great draw for visitors from across the country who are intrigued by its history, which goes back as far as Captain John Smith of the Jamestown settlement.”
Treakle isn’t the only Northern Neck resident carrying on David Nichols’ legacy. She is one of several Northern Neck residents who sit with representatives from Tangier on the board of the Tangier Island Health Foundation. Chaired by James N. Carter Jr. of Lancaster County, the foundation raises funds to keep the clinic operating. Nichols’s son, Davy, manages maintenance on the clinic. Like his father, he flies his plane to the island regularly, shuttling supplies and people (including Treakle, on occasion). Among his tasks is arranging to take trades professionals to Tangier when repairs or services are needed at the facility. “When you need to fix a thermostat or check on electrical wiring, you can’t just call a local contractor and have someone drop by,” he explains.
Treakle’s son, David, has also become involved. Still in high school, during the summer of 2012, he ferried fresh vegetables to the island, traveling aboard the Chesapeake Breeze, a cruise ship that takes visitors to the island between May and October. Then he went a step further. Treakle says, “David decided it would be even better if vegetables could be grown right on the island. With the foundation’s approval and help from board member Bill Westbrook, he set up raised beds and built trellises on land behind the clinic. The foundation bought the building materials, and Geo Products of Kilmarnock donated the seeds. Now the islanders take care of these plots and have cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, squash, lettuce, even strawberries.”
David’s experiment highlights an important aspect of Treakle’s relationship with the islanders. She says, “These are capable and self-sufficient people. Once you show them what can be done, they take it and run with it.” She’s now training islanders to process the paperwork required for insurance applications.
Perhaps nothing illustrates the success of Treakle’s efforts more than the response of individuals, businesses, and organizations in the Northern Neck and beyond to the tragedy that struck the island three years ago. On March 18, 2012, a fire destroyed a family home. Bertie Parks was killed in the fire. Her daughter, Anita Crockett, and Anita’s two children were left homeless. Anita’s sister asked Iris what she could do for the family.
“I began calling everyone I could think of to see how we might get a home for these people. And I prayed a lot,” Iris says. Her persistence set off a remarkable chain reaction that answered her prayers. Richard Taylor of the Virginia Housing Development Authority arranged a donation of materials for framing the structure. Volunteers at Kempsville Christian Church in Virginia Beach assembled the framing and delivered it to Buzzard Point Marina. Iris secured a barge from Maryland to transport materials to Tangier, where they were offloaded on a concrete slab at the island’s dock. Because there are no large commercial trucks on the island, materials were taken to the construction site by a fork lift Iris describes charitably as “temperamental.”
Help came from all over Virginia: Henderson construction (Williamsburg), Chesapeake Structural Systems (Charles City), masonry contractor Robbie Thrift (Burgess), Hanley Electric (White Stone), architect Sue Jones (Wicomico Church), Chip Hudnall (Wicomico Church), Michael Harvey Home Construction (Kilmarnock). Connemara Construction (White Stone) did interior finish work, and Northern Neck Mechanical (White Stone) installed HVAC systems. Mosaic Consignment donated furniture. Kilmarnock Methodist Church donated kitchenware. Islanders provided food and hospitality. Anita Crockett’s family will move into their new home this year.
Although she has expanded her work on the island, Treakle keeps her focus on the islanders’ health needs. Knowing it would be hard for residents of Tangier Island to take advantage of the many health fairs held on the mainland, Iris Treakle decided to stage one on the island. In May 2012 she began planning for a health fair to be held on the last Saturday in September.
The result demonstrated the best of the area’s volunteer spirit. The Northumberland County Lions Club paid for ear and eye examinations. A team of dentists and hygienists from the Gloucester- Mathews Care Clinic (“Free Clinic”), assisted by fifteen students from Old Dominion’s School of Dentistry, performed dental checkups. The Red Cross, Bay Aging, Commonwealth Assisted Living, and Main Street Pharmacy were among thirty agencies represented at the fair. Representatives from VHCF and FAMIS made the trip.
Even a last-minute snag with transportation failed to derail Treakle’s efforts. When she learned there would not be room on the Chesapeake Breeze to carry everyone over to the island, Treakle called Captain Billy Pipkin of Ingram Bay Marina. He organized a flotilla to ferry the volunteers to Tangier.
Although not interested in self-promotion, Treakle realizes the value of publicity. In 2013 VHCF selected her as its Unsung Hero—Child Health Champion. She was reticent to accept until she heard the award brought with it a $2,000 check for the foundation. “It was wonderful that so many people at the awards ceremony learned about the clinic and life on Tangier Island. Many have become friends and supporters.”
Just talking about Tangier Island and its people gets Treakle animated. “The islanders are the most unselfish people I’ve ever met. They don’t have many of the amenities we take for granted, but they’re okay with that,” she says. Treakle continues to be motivated by something Dr. Nichols told her when he first asked her to become involved: “It’s not always about you, Iris; it’s about what you can get done.”
Tangier Island Health Foundation, Post Office Box 788, Irvington, Virginia 22480
This article appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of The Local Scoop Magazine, pgs. 26-31.